Good job Jason. My heater is 18 years old, been keeping an eye on it and thinking I need to do a preventative replacement before we have an "incident". I see you have yours raised up on a platform. Does that act as a catch pan in case of a leak?
Hey Bob, yeah it's on a stand because back when my house was built in 1998 the plumbing code was that if a water heater was within 5 feet of a furnace, it had to be elevated 18" to as not not be a fire hazard (gas leak). Gas is heavier than air so it settles around the floor and having the water heater raised prevented boom boom from happening, lol.
In 2003 water heaters were redesigned to have a "Combustion Proof" burn chamber. Sounds counterproductive doesn't it? What it means is that the front of the heaters are now sealed. Since the front isn't open to an active flame, they can now be set right next to a furnace without a stand. Another part of plumbing code was that if it were in a garage it's supposed to be on a stand. Mine is in a garage but not directly. It is in a utility room so no danger of a car hitting hit. With that said, the only reason I kept it on the platform they built is because it was already there and saved me from tearing it out and extending copper and vent lines.
As for acting as a catch pan, nope. The wood got wet, lol! They do make drain pans for water heaters but more often than not they get damaged during installation and/or the drain sometimes leaks and/or leads nowhere at all! I've seen them installed then they cap off the drain. How dumb is that?
The old water heater made it 20 years! I hate to say it but I noticed the leak about 2 months ago but since it was in the garage and it was little, I didn't get in a hurry. The heater still worked so I waited until I had extra motivation lying around
